The present invention is generally related to wheel spinners and, more particularly, to a wheel spinner assembly that allows independent rotation of a wheel spinner relative to wheel rotational speed.
Vehicle wheels held in place by decorative nuts, sometimes referred to as spinner nuts, are a well-known and familiar sight on vehicles and also in racing and competition vehicles. Further, a number of sports cars, imported and domestic, have been provided with wire wheels or light-alloy wheels which are mounted on the vehicle by such decorative nuts. In known wheel assemblies, the wheel and decorative nut have a direct mechanical coupling to one another and consequently the decorative nut rotates at the same rotational speed as the wheel, e.g., same revolutions per minute, (RPM). Thus, as the vehicle moves, the wheel and the decorative nut may be perceived by observers outside the vehicle as a rather pleasant blur.
Other known wheel assemblies have used bearing means to fully decouple wheel rotation from a stationary wheel cover, such as may be desirable when that cover carries advertisement displays or other information that, in order to be legible to an observer, needs to be stationary when the vehicle is in motion. Thus, the foregoing known wheel assemblies are designed either to rotate at full wheel speed, or, conversely, to fully suppress rotation as the wheel rotates. However, it is believed that no technique has been provided that takes advantage of aesthetically pleasant visual effects that may occur if the spinner were to rotate at a different speed relative to the wheel speed.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a wheel spinner that rotates at a different rotational speed than the speed of the wheel so as to provide an aesthetically pleasing view to the observer. For example, if the rotational speed of the wheel spinner is less relative to the rotational speed of the wheel (or some multiple of it), then this may result in giving the illusion to the observer that the vehicle is xe2x80x9choveringxe2x80x9d, as the wheel/wheel spinner combination gives the appearance of standing still to that observer. Further, visually pleasant effects may be achieved if the spinner continues to spin for an extended period of time after the vehicle comes to a stop.
Generally, the present invention fulfills the foregoing needs by providing in one aspect thereof, a wheel spinner assembly mountable onto a corresponding wheel of a vehicle. The assembly includes a wheel mount supportable by the wheel. A spinner mount is connected to the wheel mount. A bearing assembly is supported by the spinner mount. A spinner is supported by the bearing assembly, wherein the bearing assembly allows the spinner to rotate independently relative to the corresponding wheel as the vehicle is in motion.
The present invention further fulfills the foregoing needs by providing in another aspect thereof, a wheel spinner assembly to be mounted onto a corresponding wheel of a vehicle. The wheel spinner assembly includes a spinner and a bearing assembly configured to provide independent rotational motion between the spinner and the wheel as the vehicle is in motion, and wherein the angular moment of inertia of the spinner is chosen to facilitate continued rotation of the spinner as the vehicle comes to a stop.
In yet another aspect of the present invention, the wheel spinner assembly includes a spinner, and a bearing assembly configured to provide independent rotational motion between the spinner and the wheel, and wherein the spinner is rotatable at a speed lesser than that of the wheel speed. The lesser speed generally results in an observer perceiving no apparent, or slower, rotational motion of the wheel as the vehicle is in motion.